NCAA Baseball Tourney: College Station Regional Preview

In the Texas area of the bracket, the Texas A&M Aggies will be looking to show that they should have been awarded a national seed instead of being paired against the TCU Regional.

Texas A&M was the No. 1 team in the country up until they dropped a weekend series ahead of a meeting with LSU. The Tigers took that weekend as well, and a lot of doubts crept into people’s minds about just how good TAMU is this year.

The Aggies are one of the nation’s top offenses, hitting for a team total of .307 this year. They also have some potent pitching, averaging a strikeout per inning.

The best pitching staff in this Regional probably belongs to 3-seed California. The Golden Bears have Daulton Jeffries, who can get just about anybody out. But since he’ll probably be used against Coastal Carolina on Friday, Texas A&M may not have to worry about him.

The Chanticleers are the 2-seed in College Station after finishing 2nd in the Big South Conference. Coastal Carolina relies on the long ball. Though they’re 10th in the country in home runs hit, the team only has the 116th best batting average nationally.

And then there’s 4-seed Texas Southern, who earned the automatic bid out of the SWAC. The Tigers lead the country in stolen bases per game. If they’re going to give Texas A&M any troubles, they’re going to have to do it by getting on, and then applying pressure on the basepaths.

This appears to be a pretty easy road for Texas A&M to get to Super Regional weekend. It would be very surprising if the Aggies don’t make it out, and really, if they don’t make it out 3-0. Coastal Carolina and Cal are just not good enough to provide a credible threat to one of the SEC’s best teams.